Wednesday Apple Rumors: New iPad Coming in March

by Christopher Freeburn | December 26, 2012 2:52 pm

[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Quick Update: Though Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[3]) only debuted the fourth-generation iPad in October, the company is preparing to launch a slimmed-down new-generation iPad early next year[4], Japanese blog Mac Otakara notes. The updated iPad will be lighter and thinner than the current model and will be styled more closely to the iPad Mini, which also debuted in October. Apple increased the thickness of the third and fourth generation iPads in order to accommodate their Retina displays. Along with a new iPad, an updated iPad Mini featuring a Retina display is also said to be in development. The fifth-generation iPad will be released in March and may confirm that Apple is indeed moving away from a one-year product update cycle to a six-month cycle.

Crime Wave: Thefts of Apple products have become so rampant in New York City that they contributed to the Big Apple’s first rise in crime in two decades[5], the Wall Street Journal notes. The New York Police Department had noted earlier this year that crimes involving Apple products had spiked 40% over last year. A spokesman for the NYPD said that the 3% rise in crime across the city had been driven by the thefts of Apple products. If crimes involving Apple products were excluded, the city might have seen a small drop in crime.

Venus Freed: The high-tech luxury yacht built for the late Steve Jobs by French designer Philippe Starck has been released by Dutch authorities[6], The Next Web notes. The yacht had been seized after Starck filed a legal complaint over $3.6 million in unpaid fees. The yacht was finished in October, about a year after Steve Jobs died, at a cost of about $138 million. Lawyers for Starck and the Jobs family have apparently negotiated a settlement and the yacht, dubbed Venus, resulting in its release.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[7] stories.